By Alison Ecklund
Larson Newspapers
On Wednesday, Jan. 28, the Sedona Fire District Governing Board will have a full board for the first time in two months.
On Jan. 20, the board voted 3-1 to appoint Village of Oak Creek resident Bert Berkshire to fill the seat vacated by former chairwoman Caryn Maxwell when she resigned Nov. 20.
Board member Liza Vernet was the lone “no” vote.
Maxwell left the seat with two years left in the term, so Berkshire will fill the seat until November 2010.
After the board interviewed candidates for close to three hours, Chairman Don Harr was impressed with all eight candidates, he said Jan. 20, and encouraged those who didn’t get the seat to run in the next election.
“The entire group are professional, both in public and private sector,” Harr said of the candidates. “I’ve been through an awful lot of this in my life, but I’ve never seen that many candidates who share that level of professionalism.”
Board members Charles Christensen and Ralph Graves agreed.
“All the candidates were great,” Graves said. “I was looking for someone who had a strong background in finance and budget. Bert [Berkshire] spent his life working in the area.”
Berkshire, a 10-year resident of the district, spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force where he served in various budget and finance organizations.
Upon retiring from the Air Force, he spent over 15 years as a civil service employee at the Air Force Space Division in Los Angeles, where he was the director of budget for all air force space systems — GPS, communications and defense satellites.
“Anything that the airforce launched, I had a hand in their development and budget to get it into the atmosphere,” he said.
Berkshire served as past president of the Big Park Regional Coordinating Council and vice president of the Sedona Golf Resort Homeowners Association in 2008. He served as president of BPRCC in 2006 and 2007 and vice president in 2004 and 2005.
He decided to run for the board to give back to the community in a way that would utilize his background, he said.
When everyone asked him what he’d do after he retired, he told them, wherever he’s living, he’ll get involved in the community, since he always received community support wherever he lived.
His goal for the board is to help them get on a sound financial footing, if needed, he said.
Berkshire will look at the way the district does budgeting and forecasting and the way it spends money.
“If they have a great system, I’ll sit back and watch,” he said.
As far as he knows, SFD is “a great district,” he said. “The search for the new chief will be interesting and exciting. The district deserves a good one and it won’t be easy to find in these times.”
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 125, or e-mail
aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com
